Israel pushes into Lebanon with expanded ground campaign

The latest from CNN: "Israeli troops landed Tuesday near the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbeck, Lebanese security sources said, and the Israeli military also engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah forces just across the border with Lebanon."

This follows Israel's decision to expand its ground campaign. Haaretz call it "a major operation against suspected Hezbollah positions". (Counterterrorism Blog has more.) The New York Times reports that "Israel sent up to 7,000 troops into Lebanon [yesterday], marking a significant increase in a ground offensive aimed at pushing the Hezbollah militia back from the border before a cease-fire is declared and a multinational force deployed". See also The Washington Post.

In Washington to meet with Condi Rice, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that the end of the conflict is "not far away" -- "weeks, not months". On PBS, as reported in the CNN article linked above, Rice accelerated the process: "Certainly we are talking about days not weeks before we are able to get a cease-fire."

With time running out, Israel will proceed with its aggressive campaign throughout Lebanon, pull back once it has determined that it has satisfactorily weakened Hezbollah, and hand over border security to an international force on its own terms (largely security to prevent Hezbollah from retaliating).

That's my prediction. For now.

But what if the timing is off? What if Israel's campaign goes on for several weeks? Will the international community -- whatever that even means -- wait for Israel to pull back before stepping in to provide security? Will the U.S. continue to stand by while the conflict rages on? Or will it exert pressure on Israel to pull back before it wants to?

In other terms, what will be the terms, and who will set them, of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon?